If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for reading!

Israelis have no moral right to fight the Chinese occupation of Tibet. The president of the Israeli Friends of the Tibetan People, the psychologist Nahi Alon, who was involved in the murder of two Palestinians in Gaza in 1967 - as was revealed in Haaretz Magazine last weekend - chose to make his private “atonement” by fighting to free Tibet, of all places. He is not alone among Israelis calling to stop the occupation - but not ours. No small number of other good Israelis have recently joined the wave of global protest that broke out over the Olympics, set to take place in Beijing this summer. It is easy; it engenders no controversy - who would not be in favor of liberating Tibet? But that is not the fight that Israeli human rights supporters should be waging.

To fight for Tibet, Israel needs no courage, because there is no price to pay. On the contrary, this is part of a fashionable global trend, almost as much as the fight against global warming or the poaching of sea lions.

These fights are just, and must be undertaken. But in Israel they are deluxe fights, which are unthinkable. When one comes to the fight with hands that are collectively, and sometimes individually, so unclean, it is impossible to protest a Chinese occupation. Citizens of a country that maintains a military subjugation in its backyard that is no less cruel than that of the Chinese, and by some parameters even more so, and against which there is practically no more protest here, have no justification in denouncing another occupation. (more…)

Today marks the anniversary of the Nazi German invasion and subsequent occupation of Denmark in 1940—the so-called Operation Weserübung. Early that morning 68 years ago, German warships entered Copenhagen harbor in violation of a German-Danish non-aggression treaty signed the prior year. The Danish military was in no condition to pose a serious obstacle to German forces; Copenhagen was taken in a matter of hours and by dawn, Denmark had capitulated. Only 39 Danish soldiers were killed in the short battle.

Of course, Denmark was not strategically crucial to Hitler’s plans and was only occupied “on the way” to Norway, where the Nazis secured critical iron-ore reserves. By all accounts, Hitler intended the occupation in Denmark to be a “model protectorate” in Europe and because Danes were “fellow Nordic Aryans”, they could be trusted to handle their own domestic affairs. For this and a number of other reasons, the Nazis were inclined to be lenient with Denmark. Besides, the official reason for the occupation provided by Germany was to safeguard Denmark from a potential British invasion… But the Danes had other plans. (more…)

AMY GOODMAN: [Five years ago] on March 19th, 2003, the US began bombing Baghdad. The invasion was on. Six weeks later, President Bush stood under a banner reading “Mission Accomplished” and declared an end to major military combat operations in Iraq. Now, half a decade later, the war continues with no end in sight.

In a speech today to mark the fifth anniversary, the President, who leaves office in less than eleven months, will again give an upbeat assessment of the war. According to released excerpts of his address, Bush will insist the so-called troop surge in Iraq has opened the door to a “major strategic victory in the broader war on terror.”

But by most accounts, the war has been an unmitigated disaster. Up to one million Iraqis have been killed, with no estimates on the number of those wounded. Up to 2.5 million people are estimated to be displaced inside Iraq, and more than two million have fled to neighboring countries. Meanwhile, nearly 4,000 US soldiers have been killed and tens of thousands more wounded. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz estimates the overall cost of this war will be $3 trillion. (more…)

AMY GOODMAN: [Tonight] the US invasion and occupation of Iraq will enter its sixth year. On Monday, at least seventy-two Iraqis were killed in violence around Iraq, including forty-two Shiite worshippers in a suicide bombing in Karbala. Two US troops were also killed, bringing the US death toll to 3,990, ten deaths away from the 4,000 mark.

If the Bush administration’s drive to invade Iraq was aided by corporate media cheerleading, the five-year mark today is being met with near-silence by the corporate media. According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism, the US occupation of Iraq has accounted for just three percent of news stories in television, print and online media so far this year. On cable news networks, it’s accounted for just one percent.

That silence was on display this past weekend when the corporate media largely ignored a monumental gathering just outside the nation’s capital. For four days, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and active-duty soldiers convened at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Maryland for Winter Soldier, an eyewitness indictment of atrocities committed by US troops during the ongoing occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War, the event was modeled after the historic 1971 Winter Soldier hearings that took place in Detroit held during the Vietnam War. (more…)

AMY GOODMAN: Iraq and Afghanistan veterans gathered in Maryland this past weekend to testify at Winter Soldier, an eyewitness indictment of atrocities committed by US troops during the ongoing occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War, the event was modeled after the historic 1971 Winter Soldier hearings held during the Vietnam War.

Over the weekend, war veterans spoke of free-fire zones, the shootings and beatings of innocent civilians, racism at the highest levels of the military, sexual harassment and assault within the military, and the torturing of prisoners.

Although Winter Soldier was held just outside the nation’s capital, it was almost entirely ignored by the American corporate media. A search on the Lexis database found that no major television network or cable news network even mentioned Winter Soldier over the weekend, neither did the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times or most other major newspapers in the country. The editors of the Washington Post chose to cover Winter Soldier but placed the article in the local section. (more…)

Israel issued a warning to Hamas on Sunday that the organization would be responsible for any injuries or deaths resulting from a mass demonstration against the blockade of Gaza held yesterday.

If necessary, IDF artillery will fire warning shots at open areas, and should the protestors continue their advance, troops will employ riot dispersal methods.

As a last resort, snipers will open fire at protestors legs. The orders were approved by senior General Staff officers as well as Defense Minister Ehud Barak. <<< more

Of course, it is ridiculous to claim that Hamas would be responsible for the killing of innocent civilians authorized by the Israeli military, but the logic of the blockade encourages these inanities. We are also meant to accept that Hamas is actually responsible for the international economic boycott on Gaza as well as for the severe shortage of food products and power resources. (more…)

I was so eager to read the memoirs of this great Marxist historian that I could not wait to read it. Finished it on the plane last night. What a big disappointment. You can be a great historian and write a lousy memoirs. You don’t even learn much about who he is from reading it. You learn some about the times but I would rather read his The Age of Extremes (a history of the 20th century). Now that is a fine piece of work.

I think that the problems with this memoirs is this: to write a good memoirs 1) you need to think that you are somewhat interesting; 2) you need to be a good story teller; 3) you need to be comfortable talking about yourself. That does not apply here. (more…)

The inanity of authoritarian movements can never be underestimated. The horrific shooting by Hamas of unarmed demonstrators is only the latest example of the Islamist group’s unwillingness or inability to control its forces in the Gaza Strip.

Squandering the general support they enjoyed here by forcibly seizing control of the Strip last June, many Gazans now regard Hamas as an unhinged group of fanatics more concerned with rooting out political opposition than in combating the Israeli occupation. (more…)

As I write this, thousands of pro-Fatah demonstrators are pouring through the streets of Gaza City, collecting at al-Anzar park near Islamic University to commemorate the third anniversary of Yassir Arafat’s death. Already, Hamas thugs have killed one and injured dozens of demonstrators. Because these events are literally occurring just blocks away from my flat, I’ll probably remain at my downtown office until things calm down. This is quite bad. All I can hear is shouting, sirens and heavy gunfire…

UPDATE: Seven have now been killed.

Tags: Violence, Gaza, Palestine, Clashes, Security, Fatah, Hamas, Gunfire, Al-Anzar, Islamic University, Yassir Arafat, Gaza City